Haifa — a century-old battle, the politics of memory

1. At a Glance

• Battle of Haifa (23 September 1918) was a decisive cavalry action by Indian Imperial Service Lancers (Jodhpur, Mysore, Hyderabad) that captured the port city of Haifa from Ottoman-German forces during WWI [1][2].
• It is cited as one of the last successful cavalry charges in military history and a landmark of India's WWI overseas service [1][2].
• The episode is relevant to UPSC as a case of India's global military legacy, postcolonial memory politics, and India-Israel commemorative diplomacy [2] [3].
• Author Shashi Tharoor frames it as exposing "moral complexities of empire" — colonial soldiers fighting Britain's wars, later reclaimed as national pride [3].

2. Why in the News

• The article "Haifa — a century-old battle, the politics of memory" by Shashi Tharoor was published in The Hindu, Chennai edition, dated 23 September 2026, marking the 108th anniversary of the battle [3].
• Recent commemorations: the Indian Embassy in Israel held ceremonies honouring Battle of Haifa heroes (reported September 2026) [2].
• India and Israel have jointly institutionalised "Haifa Day" observance around 23 September [2].

3. Background & Evolution

• 1918: During WWI's Palestine Campaign, the 15th Imperial Service Cavalry Brigade — comprising Jodhpur, Mysore, and Hyderabad Lancers — was tasked with capturing Haifa, defended by entrenched Ottoman-German gun positions between the Kishon River and Mount Carmel [1].
• Jodhpur Lancers led the frontal charge (~300 horses, half committed); Mysore Lancers (~250 horses) flanked from the north/east [1].
• Result: Haifa captured; 1,350 Ottoman/German prisoners taken; Indian casualties 8 dead, 34 wounded (some sources cite ~44 killed/wounded); 60 horses killed, 83 injured [1][2].
• Major Dalpat Singh of the Jodhpur Lancers led the charge and died in the action — remembered as the "Hero of Haifa" [2].
• 1922: Teen Murti Memorial, New Delhi, erected by the British colonial government, designed by sculptor Leonard Jennings, depicting the three lancer regiments [2].
• 14 January 2018: PM Narendra Modi and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu jointly renamed Teen Murti Chowk to "Teen Murti Haifa Chowk" [2].
• Context: over 1 million Indian soldiers served overseas in WWI (Flanders to Mesopotamia); over 74,000 died [3].

4. Core Static Facts

Item	Detail
Date of battle	23 September 1918 [1]
Theatre	Palestine Campaign, WWI, Allenby's offensive toward Damascus [3]
Units involved	Jodhpur Lancers, Mysore Lancers, Hyderabad Lancers — 15th Imperial Service Cavalry Brigade [1][2]
Key commander/martyr	Major Dalpat Singh, Jodhpur Lancers [2]
Opposing force	Ottoman & German troops [1]
Prisoners captured	~1,350 [1]
Indian casualties	8 dead, 34 wounded (per one account); ~44 killed/wounded (per another) [1][2]
Horse casualties	60 killed, 83 injured [1]
Commemorative memorial	Teen Murti Memorial, New Delhi (built 1922) [2]
Renaming event	Teen Murti Chowk → Teen Murti Haifa Chowk, 14 January 2018 [2]
Significance tag	Regarded as one of the last successful cavalry charges in history [1]

5. Multi-Dimensional Analysis

Historical

• Represents the culmination of India's princely-state military contributions (Jodhpur, Mysore, Hyderabad — all princely states) to the British Indian Army in WWI [1].
• Sits within the larger, under-remembered history of >1 million Indian soldiers serving overseas, 74,000+ dead, in wars "not of their own making" [3].

Geopolitical / Strategic

• The battle is now a diplomatic anchor for India-Israel bilateral memory diplomacy, reinforced by the 2018 Teen Murti Haifa Chowk renaming during Netanyahu's India visit [2].
• Annual embassy-level commemorations in Israel sustain this as a living instrument of bilateral goodwill [2].

Ethical / Governance (Politics of Memory)

• Tharoor's framing highlights the moral ambiguity of empire: colonial subjects celebrated for valour in service of imperial, not national, objectives [3].
• Memory is "contested, reclaimed, reinterpreted" — by British imperial memorialisation (1922 memorial), postcolonial Indian nationalism, and Israeli national narrative simultaneously [3].

Social

• Princely-state soldiery (Rajput Jodhpur Lancers, etc.) forms part of India's diverse, often marginalised WWI martial memory, distinct from mainstream freedom-struggle narratives [1][3].

6. Recent Developments (last 12–18 months)

• September 2026: Indian Embassy in Israel conducts ceremony commemorating Battle of Haifa heroes [2].
• 23 September 2026: Shashi Tharoor's essay on Haifa's "politics of memory" published in The Hindu on the battle's 108th anniversary [3].
• Continued annual "Haifa Day" observance by Indian Armed Forces on 23 September [2].

7. Prelims Hooks

• Battle of Haifa fought on 23 September 1918 during WWI's Palestine Campaign [1].
• Indian units involved: Jodhpur Lancers, Mysore Lancers, Hyderabad Lancers — part of the 15th Imperial Service Cavalry Brigade [1][2].
• Considered one of the last successful cavalry charges in military history [1].
• Major Dalpat Singh (Jodhpur Lancers) led the charge and is remembered as "Hero of Haifa" [2].
• ~1,350 Ottoman/German prisoners captured in the battle [1].
• Teen Murti Memorial, New Delhi, built in 1922, commemorates the three lancer regiments; sculpted by Leonard Jennings [2].
• Teen Murti Chowk renamed "Teen Murti Haifa Chowk" on 14 January 2018, during Netanyahu's India visit [2].
• Over 1 million Indians served overseas in WWI; over 74,000 died [3].
• Author of the referenced essay: Shashi Tharoor, Lok Sabha MP (Thiruvananthapuram), Chairman, Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs [3].
• Haifa is a port city in present-day Israel, on the Mediterranean coast below Mount Carmel [1].

8. The Soldier Was Brave, But the War Was Not India's

• These men were not soldiers of an Indian nation — that nation did not exist yet
• The Jodhpur, Mysore and Hyderabad Lancers were Imperial Service Troops — armies paid for and raised by princely states, then lent to the British when Britain asked [1].
• A princely ruler under British paramountcy could not really say no. So "volunteering" at the top was not a free choice.

• The result: the courage at Haifa belongs to the men, but the war aim belonged to London [3].

• What Britain won at Haifa, India did not win

• Haifa was captured for General Allenby's push towards Damascus [3].
• It was a port — taking it gave the British army a sea supply line for the rest of the campaign [1].

• India paid for that with over 74,000 dead across the whole war, and got no political reward: the promised move towards self-rule after 1918 came with the Rowlatt Act instead [3].

• Why an aspirant should hold both halves together

• Saying "they were only mercenaries" erases 1 million men [3].
• Saying "they fought for India" is also false — there was no India to fight for in 1918.
• The honest line for a Mains answer: the valour was Indian, the purpose was imperial.

9. One Battle, Three Countries Using It for Different Reasons

• Britain used it to show that the empire was loyal
• The Teen Murti memorial was built in 1922 by the colonial government, not by free India [2].

• 1922 is important. This is right after Jallianwala Bagh (1919) and the Non-Cooperation Movement. A statue of loyal Indian cavalry in the new capital was useful to the rulers at that exact moment.

• India uses it today as friendship with Israel

• Teen Murti Chowk became Teen Murti Haifa Chowk on 14 January 2018, during Netanyahu's visit — a renaming done as a diplomatic gift [2].

• So a colonial monument was not removed. It was re-labelled and given a new job.

• Israel uses it as the freeing of one of its cities

• At the 2018 centenary in Haifa, the Indian Embassy ceremony was attended by the Mayor of Haifa and representatives of the IDF, alongside an Army delegation from India led by Maj Gen V.D. Dogra [5].

• For Israel the story is about Haifa being taken from the Ottomans; for India it is about Indian horsemen. Same day, two different meanings.

• The exam point — this is what "politics of memory" means in practice: the facts of 1918 do not change, but who is allowed to feel proud of them keeps changing [3].

10. Careful With the Word "Liberated"

• Haifa did not become free in 1918. It changed owners.
• The city passed from Ottoman control to British control [1].

• It then sat under British rule in Palestine until 1948. The people of Haifa did not get self-rule out of that charge.

• Why this matters for how you write the answer

• Government and embassy language says Indian soldiers "liberated" Haifa [5].
• In an answer, use the word with care: write "captured Haifa from Ottoman-German forces", and then mention that it was later described as liberation. That shows you know the difference between a fact and a framing.
• This is the same skill the examiner tests in postcolonial history questions — separating what happened from how it is remembered [3].

11. The Awkward Fit With India's Palestine Policy

• India's stated position has not changed
• India was the first non-Arab state to recognise the PLO (1974) and among the first to recognise the State of Palestine (1988) [4].

• India still officially supports a sovereign, independent, viable and united State of Palestine living at peace beside Israel [4].

• So a Haifa commemoration can be read the wrong way

• Haifa Day is now an annual India-Israel event, observed around 23 September [2].

• If the only India-West Asia military memory the public knows is a battle celebrated with Israel, the balance in India's policy becomes invisible to ordinary people, even though it still exists on paper [4].

• The government's own answer to this is called de-hyphenation

• De-hyphenation means India deals with Israel and Palestine separately, and does not treat a gain with one as a loss for the other.
• The proof is in the calendar: Teen Murti Chowk was renamed with Netanyahu on 14 January 2018 [2], and PM Modi made the first-ever Indian Prime Ministerial visit to Palestine on 10 February 2018 [4] — less than a month apart.
• Use this pair of dates in a GS-II answer. It is the cleanest single example of de-hyphenation you can carry.

12. The Strongest Objection — and Why It Only Half Works

• The objection: remembering Haifa is glorifying colonial service. It teaches young Indians to be proud of fighting Britain's wars, at a time when the rest of the syllabus teaches resistance to Britain.
• What is right about it
• The memorial was a colonial project from the start, built by the British government in 1922 [2].

• Selecting Haifa — and not, say, the Mesopotamia campaign where Indian troops suffered a humiliating surrender — means we remember the flattering part of an unflattering story [3].

• Where it fails

• Refusing to remember does not undo the empire. It only deletes the men. Over 1 million Indians served abroad and over 74,000 died [3]; silence leaves their families with nothing.

• The soldier and the state are not the same thing. You can condemn the war and still record the man who died in it — Major Dalpat Singh was killed leading the charge [2].

• The balanced position to write — remember the soldiers fully, and name the empire that sent them. Tharoor's own framing does exactly this: he calls the episode a window into the "moral complexities of empire", not a celebration [3].

13. How This Memory Could Be Handled Better

• Ministry of Defence should repeat the Haifa model for the campaigns nobody commemorates
• The government already knows how to do this. For the Haifa centenary it sent an Army delegation abroad under Maj Gen V.D. Dogra and held a formal ceremony with local authorities [5].
• The same effort has not gone to Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq) or East Africa, where Indian troops also served and died [3].

• Doing only the battle that has a friendly host country is how memory becomes diplomacy instead of history.

• Ministry of External Affairs should pair the commemoration with its Palestine record

• Every Haifa Day statement can carry India's standing line on a sovereign State of Palestine, which MEA already publishes [4].

• This costs nothing, and it stops one ceremony from being read as a change of policy.

• Ministry of Culture and ASI should add the explanation board, not a new statue

• Teen Murti was built in 1922 by the colonial government and sculpted by Leonard Jennings [2]. Most people who pass it do not know this.

• A plain plaque stating who built it, when, and why, turns a loyalty monument into a teaching site — the standard practice for contested colonial monuments, and cheaper than renaming.

• A caution for the aspirant — do not write "a holistic approach is needed". Write the actor and the act: MoD to extend centenary-style commemoration to Mesopotamia; MEA to restate the two-state position alongside Haifa Day; ASI to add interpretive signage at Teen Murti.

14. Anchors for Answers

• Data: Over 1 million Indian soldiers served overseas in WWI; over 74,000 died [3]
• Data: Battle of Haifa, 23 September 1918 — ~1,350 Ottoman/German prisoners taken; Indian losses 8 dead and 34 wounded; 60 horses killed [1]
• Comparison: Britain's 1922 Teen Murti memorial (built to display imperial loyalty) vs India's 2018 renaming to Teen Murti Haifa Chowk (built to display bilateral friendship) — same stone, opposite purposes [2]
• Policy: India's de-hyphenation in one pair of dates — Teen Murti Haifa Chowk renamed with Netanyahu on 14 January 2018 [2]; first-ever Indian PM visit to Palestine on 10 February 2018 [4]
• Policy: India was the first non-Arab state to recognise the PLO (1974), among the first to recognise the State of Palestine (1988), Representative Office Gaza 1996, shifted to Ramallah 2003 [4]
• Precedent: Battle of Haifa centenary, 2018 — Indian Embassy ceremony in Haifa with an Army delegation led by Maj Gen V.D. Dogra, the Mayor of Haifa and IDF representatives [5]
• Quote to use: Tharoor frames Haifa as showing the "moral complexities of empire" — colonial soldiers fighting wars "not of their own making", later reclaimed as national pride [3]

15. Mains Relevance

• GS-I: World History — First World War; role of Indian soldiers overseas.
• GS-I: Indian Heritage & Culture — memorials, war heritage, princely-state military traditions.
• GS-II: International Relations — India-Israel bilateral relations, symbolic/commemorative diplomacy.
• Possible question stems:
• Discuss the significance of the Battle of Haifa (1918) in the context of India's overseas military contribution during the First World War. (GS-I)
• 'Memory of colonial military valour is often selectively reconstructed for contemporary diplomatic ends.' Examine this with reference to the Battle of Haifa and India-Israel relations. (GS-I/II)
• Critically evaluate the moral ambiguities of celebrating colonial-era military heroism in postcolonial nation-building. (GS-I/Essay)

16. Related Topics to Study Next

• India's role in World War I — broader context of overseas Indian deployment and casualties.
• India-Israel bilateral relations — strategic, defence, and diplomatic ties post-1992.
• Princely states' military contributions — Jodhpur, Mysore, Hyderabad as case studies of indirect colonial rule.
• War memorials in India — India Gate, Teen Murti, and colonial-era memorialisation practices.
• Postcolonial memory politics — how nations reinterpret colonial-era events (cf. debates on statues, renaming).
• Sykes-Picot Agreement & Palestine Campaign — geopolitical background of the WWI Middle East theatre.
• Shashi Tharoor's works on British Empire — e.g., "An Era of Darkness," for continuity of colonial-critique themes.

17. Common Errors / Trap Areas

• Confusing the Battle of Haifa (1918) with other WWI Palestine campaign battles (e.g., Battle of Megiddo, same broader offensive).
• Misattributing the charge to a single regiment — it was a joint action of Jodhpur, Mysore, and Hyderabad Lancers, not Jodhpur alone.
• Getting the Teen Murti renaming date wrong — it was 14 January 2018, not the memorial's original construction date (1922).
• Assuming the Teen Murti Memorial was built by independent India — it was actually commissioned by the British colonial government in 1922.
• Overstating casualty figures — sources vary between "8 dead/34 wounded" and "~44 killed/wounded"; treat as approximate, not fixed.